One More Blog

Post-2011 update

2012-01-08T15:25:00.023-06:00

Anyone still out there? Anyone? I have some blogging issues that prevent me from writing very often (things like privacy and self-consciousness and belaboring everything I write, etc. etc.), but after reading so many of my favorite people's Christmas cards, letters, emails, blog posts, etc., I figured maybe I should do some sort of update in an effort to be better at staying in touch (

This is how it -- I mean, I -- went down

2011-08-28T21:10:00.010-05:00

Remember the time I broke my leg? Here's the story in all its gory detail. As a budding paraglider, you have to take risks. See me up there? That's pretty high, pretty risky. When you crash from up there, well...you're bound to take a hit. ... Okay, okay, juuust kidding. That really isn't me. That's a pro. Fun to pretend though, right? Anyway. This is what really happened. I bought Mark a

I'm on a roll!

2011-07-22T12:01:00.004-05:00

Maren discovers the anonymity provided by a good pair of shades. No one recognizes her during our entire trip to Home Depot.

Thoughts on the zoo

2011-07-22T11:31:00.005-05:00

Hello? Hello? Anyone still out there?I have some existential issues with this blog, but that's a topic for another time, maybe. For now, let's talk about the zoo.I bought a zoo pass because the zoo is about 2 miles from my house and it's something to do during the long lonely days of a medical resident's wife.However, it's hot outside, and most of the interesting animals are doing exactly what I

I have listened to the theme song from Chariots of Fire twenty times tonight, and this is why.

2011-02-07T22:18:00.007-06:00

I love Chariots of Fire—especially the character of Eric Liddell—and here's why.Eric Liddell and friends celebrate a race well run Sure it’s a great movie about honor, motives, and ambition. But I love it because Eric is a person committed to his faith, enough so that he’s willing to make a huge sacrifice to be true to his convictions. And he’s still normal. He’s not a weirdo; he’s not an

Disaster strikes!

2010-12-07T21:53:00.005-06:00

This, among other biohazards, is what happens in sweltering San Antonio when the water heater in your closet attic leaks while you're out of town for a month. Farewell, once-beloved open-waisted Doc Marten Mary Janes. You're probably alive enough to walk yourselves right out of the landfill.

Accomplishments

2010-11-01T22:31:00.007-05:00

(Before I get started -- apologies to anyone who commented a while ago on some other posts. I had enabled comment moderation on old posts to reduce spam but I failed to ensure I would be notified of them. Oops! I have read and published them all; thanks for sharing and sorry I'm a lame blogger.)Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...A while ago I tagged along with Mark to a small

Some lists

2010-10-15T16:48:00.006-05:00

Things bugging me for the first time lately:mean people commenting mean things on news storiesraccoons fighting (or...?) loudly in my back yard at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 a.m.Things that have always and continue to bug me:mosquitoes, fire ants, prickly grass, and other hindrances to being outsidetraffic and lack of sidewalks in San AntonioThings I'm in love with lately:fresh mushrooms (in a parallel

Floored

2010-09-03T20:42:00.003-05:00

I have just had amazing customer service from a mammoth online merchant. Mark, bless his soul, ordered a rather pricey textbook last week from amazon.com and wondered why it hadn't arrived yet (it was due on Tuesday). When we checked the order status it had indeed been delivered on Tuesday -- to our old address 4 hours away. (I do not recommend one-click shopping for people who move every year.)

Purge

2010-08-31T14:36:00.009-05:00

For those of you anxiously awaiting the end of the Dani-reads-The Hunger Games-saga, I'm done.Phew.I'm ready to get back to real life.I think taking longer than 24 hours to read Mockingjay will make you go crazy. I did it in in like 20 -- sandwiching eight or so hours of restless, Peeta-dream-filled sleep -- and three hours later my mind's still spinning and I'm hoping a stream-of-consiousness

Catching Fire: A humble review

2010-08-30T14:49:00.004-05:00

Balalhalhfalalalalla!!!!Contrived still? Yes. Violent? Yes. Cruel to use a chapter-ending cliffhanger to end the book? YES.BUT.So, so good. SO good.What else is there to say? There's the satisfaction of being one step ahead of the protagonist, the exasperation at the stupid things she does because you know (or are pretty sure you know) more than she does, the exhilaration of flouting the

You will probably disagree with this, or "I liked it but it bugged me"

2010-08-25T12:53:00.004-05:00

Okay, so it was entertaining—gripping even—perfectly paced, with some well-rounded, likable characters. I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. I binged and read it in two days. I was anxious to know how it would end (though I hoped for a little more resolution than I got). And it wasn’t even all that predictable!But.It was just so…contrived.I was engaged until

At least you have your teeth

2010-06-30T21:13:00.005-05:00

Makes me laugh every time.(A.M., this post was for you)

Does this make my butt look fat?

2010-05-15T11:32:00.001-05:00

I don't get it

2010-05-14T09:42:00.005-05:00

I've been teaching the Old Testament to 17-year-olds since January. You've really got to wonder about those Israelites, grumbling about how rough life is while munching on some miracle manna. Their Achilles' heel seems to be those pesky foreign gods, but honestly I'm puzzled at the allure of worshiping shiny, inanimate, man-made objects. How can we even relate to these people?

Celebrity Crush

2010-03-23T09:17:00.002-05:00

I'm totally head-over-heels for Prince Naveen. We maybe watched The Princess and the Frog twice in 24 hours. I'm still laughing.

Hope springs eternal

2010-03-11T20:56:00.011-06:00

I'm an optimist.I manage to hope that even after a decade of dermatologic distress, my acne will clear up. I'm always optimistic that tonight will be the night I get eight (or heck, even six or seven) uninterrupted hours of sleep. I like to believe that I will have time for the many projects I want to work on, or that today I won't waste a single second mindlessly surfing the internet.None of

Writer's block

2010-03-07T10:40:00.009-06:00

I've mulled over many post topics in my head, but when I sit to write them out, apparently none of them are worth pursuing.So here's a picture of my kid instead....For the record, the topics I've been chewing on:cyclingSouth Texasacnemetablogging"identity boxes"Boring all. But I may squeeze something out of them yet.

Irony

2010-01-09T12:57:00.004-06:00

It was 27 degrees this morning and our heater's not working...making it 58 in the house (or colder; I don't think the thermostat registers anything lower than that).I guess I got what I wished for.Brrr.

Tough decisions

2009-12-29T14:39:00.004-06:00

We got one of those fine print "Important Changes to Your Account Terms" for one of our credit cards. I was about to just file it away without looking at it, since these things usually involve changes in APR or finances charges, and since we never carry a balance I don't worry about that stuff. Thanks to Congress, lately they've been more in the vein of "we're not allowed to rake you over the

Encore

2009-12-20T19:26:00.002-06:00

Back by popular demand...M A R E NI've been asked about this name. There isn't much of a story except this:When I was a little girl, I loved planning what I would name my children, and top on the list was Maren, because I thought I had made it up. Imagine my dismay, as a small child, to find that there was someone in my ward named Marin. I was understandably upset. My baby was

How she got here

2009-12-11T16:50:00.012-06:00

WARNING: Long post.A week ago yesterday Maren made her big debut, writhing into the world in what is proving to be her signature style. Here’s how it went down: Tuesday, December 1 Contractions get more uncomfortable. Dani pauses to document the large size of her abdomen.Increasingly aware of her cervix, Dani passes a restless night. Wednesday, December 2

Meet Maren

2009-12-05T21:02:00.002-06:00

Maren EmilyBorn December 3, 200911:50 a.m.19 inches6 lbs. 11 oz.More pictures and details forthcoming...our internet decided THIS was a good weekend to go on the fritz. Hopefully we'll be up and running by Monday.

The Gospel of Peace

2009-12-01T18:45:00.007-06:00

I’ve had a heavy heart since I heard Friday’s news of the passing of John Jones, who was trapped in the Nutty Putty caves last week. I have felt a deep sadness since reading about it on Friday morning, and I’ve struggled to understand my own emotions.We weren't terribly close to the Jones, who were in our ward at BYU for a year, and we haven’t kept in touch. But the Jones are the kind of people

Cankles

2009-11-30T10:00:00.004-06:00

I was chastened by Nephi this morning.1 Nephi 18:15-16"...and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof...Nevertheless...I did not murmur...because of mine afflictions."So I guess I should stop complaining that I can't tell where my calves stop and my toes begin. ::sigh::

Should I be angry or amused? I'll take amused.

2009-11-27T21:00:00.001-06:00

At first when people started noticing my belly and taking the liberty of asking me all sorts of personal questions and scrutinizing my figure in usually inappropriate ways I was a little self-conscious. My child’s gender has been predicted based on the size and shape of my abdomen more times than I can remember (according to most people it’s a boy because I’ve expanded up more than out; one woman

Follow-up

2009-11-27T20:34:00.003-06:00

I just wanted to say that if I came across anti-hospital in my last post, I didn't mean to. Hospitals are great places to have babies (my friend Melanie that I referenced had hers in a hospital in Utah County). My intended point was just that I was exposed to information that both surprised me and challenged a lot of my assumptions about birth. So that post was partly to explain myself (since

Why I’m choosing to “go natural”

2009-11-24T10:52:00.010-06:00

As you may or may not know, I’m planning a non-hospital, drug-free waterbirth attended by a midwife. I get varied reactions from people when they find this out – mostly polite surprise, but also the occasional “Hoo boy, you’re brave” (Mark’s grandma) and, among the brutally honest (my father), overt initial skepticism. Curiosity is one consistent aspect of nearly everyone’s reaction.And as a

Eew

2009-11-11T22:09:00.002-06:00

Gross: Finding a dead spider in your bedside Vaseline. Deciding to deal with it tomorrow.Grosser: Applying Vaseline to your lips in the dark the next night and wondering what that crusty thing was. Realizing what that crusty thing was.

Just cruel

2009-10-06T09:55:00.007-05:00

I almost cried when I got this email today.Because much to my dismay it is definitely NOT sweater season here.Think 91 sounds balmy? It's not. Add 60% humidity and it "Feels like 103 degrees." And as you can see, it's not going to get any better later today.If you are fortunate enough to be living near my homeland, you may be lamenting that it's hovering around freezing (I know this because I

Reminiscing

2009-05-13T09:18:00.005-05:00

One year ago today, I was on an airplane to Italy.::sigh::

Fresh & Clean

2009-02-28T12:37:00.003-06:00

If you're thinking this looks a lot like the remnants of a stash of 10 tithing envelopes forgotten in the pocket of a shirt that found its way into the wash today, you're right -- that's exactly what this is.

The San Antonio Church Tour of '09

2009-02-25T11:03:00.006-06:00

The San Antonio Church Tour of '09 is in full swing! In an effort to broaden my religious understanding, I'm visiting various churches in San Antonio and blogging about it. So if you have any interest in reading (admittedly long) posts about my experiences, you can check out the blog atsachurchtour09.blogspot.comIf you have suggestions of churches or worship areas I should consider, or if you

I'm not as cool as I pretend to be

2009-02-19T15:05:00.009-06:00

I butchered a French man's name today. And I mean wholesale slaughtered it.It wasn't even a strange, unfamiliar name with bizarre French spelling that would have left me totally clueless. It wasn't Jacquot or Apollinaire or Émilien or Amaury or Théophile. THOSE I would have looked up online before even attempting. No, it was Jean-François. Which seems easy enough.Now, I don't speak French. But

Where there's a will there's a way

2009-01-26T22:22:00.005-06:00

This is what happens if you wrap your dough in only ONE layer of saran wrap and put it in the fridge overnight. It will break through the saran wrap (not just find its way out a loose edge, but actually burst a hole clean through the plastic) and form a crusty goiter-y thing.But do not despair—that persistent yeast hasn't gotten the best of you yet. You can still make an excellent pizza crust.

Today is a red-letter day...

2009-01-12T22:45:00.008-06:00

(you may have to run an ActiveX control to get the above song to play)It's been a looong time since I've had this much style.

Large Obnoxious Bureaucratic Entities, Part 2

2008-12-29T18:15:00.017-06:00

The fact that the travel experience from San Antonio to Salt Lake City last Wednesday was the most seamless and enjoyable ever—owing to a pre-downloaded episode of Pushing Daisies to pass the airport time, being upgraded to First Class at the last minute as a reward for my charitable nature, and getting paid to work while I flew from the Lone Star to the Beehive state—all this should have tipped

The Doghouse

2008-12-10T09:46:00.008-06:00

I don't like jewelry, but I'd love a dual-bag or an abcerciser (we've even discussed the hair waxer...and Mark was only half joking). So while this didn't exactly resonate, it suuure entertained.http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/VideoPage.aspx(Give it a minute to load; it's about 5 minutes long)

Vigilante parking enforcement

2008-11-26T08:29:00.011-06:00

Three days, four voicemails and over 20 unanswered phone calls later, at 7:30 this morning I finally got through to the man who held my parking fate in his hands.He generously gave me the benefit of the doubt and waived the fee without any ado, for which I am very grateful. He reduced the citation to a "warning" for Mark. (?!)How did this happen in the first place, you may ask? Apparently someone

This ain't over

2008-11-21T16:19:00.014-06:00

It's one thing for a campus parking office to make up rules--asinine as they may be--and then punish you when you don't follow them. After all, that's their job. You can whine about that until the cows come home, but you can't say you weren't warned.It is totally different to ticket a visitor parked legitimately in visitor parking and give no more reason than "4006 - PARKED WHERE PROHIBITED" and

Soul Music

2008-11-13T22:12:00.008-06:00

People, I like a good deal. And boy oh boy did I score one this week. Get this: Mat Kearney's Nothing Left to Lose album was only $8.00 on iTunes for 15 songs. Fifteen AWESOME songs. Every. Single. Song. Rocks. When was the last time you loved an ENTIRE album? Without even skipping one song? And there were 15 songs?! That's like, almost 50 cents a song. And if you were to do the math on$8.00 ÷

Travelblogue: The Best Part

2008-11-10T21:50:00.011-06:00

I invariably get asked what my favorite part was about visiting Italy. (At least I used to get asked that, like 4 months ago, when this topic was still timely.)And this is invariably my answer:I liked hanging out with this guy, too:(Mostly to look at his beard, and see his sweet frisbee moves.)But Alaina takes the Dani's-favorite-part-of-Italy-ever prize. Some days I just couldn't wait for her to

Travelblogue: The Italian Experience

2008-11-05T22:00:00.006-06:00

I took about 20 pictures of this guy (who was talking animatedly to someone just to the left of the picture) by pretending to shoot St. Peter's Basilica in the background. Hoping to get a picturesque shot, I was going crazy on my cheap little camera as if someone were calling on the side, "Work it, nonno, I love it!" When he finally got up to leave I looked over and there were about 10 tourists

Understand your world!

2008-10-09T21:50:00.005-05:00

Unless you've been totally isolated from the news for the past months, you have undoubtedly heard of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, the credit crisis, and more recently, the Wall Street bailout. And even though I average 4 to 5 hours of NPR a day, 5 to 6 days a week (I think I need rehab), I have yet to feel like I really understood what was going on. But today I listened to two This American

Travelblogue: For Heidi

2008-09-25T20:53:00.002-05:00

!!!!!!!!!

Travelblogue: First Impressions & If Only I Had a Sweet Camera

2008-09-25T20:36:00.008-05:00

Am I still allowed to post this grossly outdated stuff?Saw Andrea Bocelli perform live here (for free)--the Piazza del Duomo in Milan:Where Dr. Seuss got his ideas:

Travelblogue: Preface

2008-08-10T20:41:00.005-05:00

August 10, 2008.Dear Diary,For exactly two months I have rationed our overseas journey's precious provisions with utmost care. They would have lasted longer if not for a ravenous beast in my midst who consumed a small portion. The beast's subsequent comment that it "preferred the Hershey bar they gave us in Sacrament meeting on Father's Day" disgusted me, and I threw it a Symphony of equal weight

The grind explained

2008-07-24T15:17:00.004-05:00

For anyone who's wondering, the small (15 employees) company I work for publishes and distributes newsletters for homeowners' associations, small cities, neighborhoods, etc. I design ads, lay out newsletters, update the website (sort of), offer pranking suggestions, and keep the profanity to a minimum in my general vicinity. I got this job by Google-mapping "publishing" and showing up completely

The grind part II

2008-07-20T22:03:00.007-05:00

My new* job is about as good as 40 hours a week can possibly be.I’ve managed to be pretty dang organized. (It helps when you get to start from scratch, and you don’t inherit someone else’s disorganization.)Multitasking rocks.We can have a heated work discussion involving raised voices and cussing** and then we’re all still friends two minutes later.I found out that you can listen to too much

Dear...Someone Connected with This Address

2008-07-16T18:30:00.001-05:00

This was waiting for us in our stack of mail when we got back from Italy. I enjoyed it so much that I really wanted to keep it, but I'll document it here instead.It came in this envelope:(front)(back)Here's the meat of it:[click to enlarge]Here's the "rug" in question (really a 10x16 piece of paper):I was supposed to send it back (the next morning) in this:Also included were some product offers:.

Long Sunday Walks

2008-07-06T21:39:00.003-05:00

I told Mark I was getting a ride home from church so he could keep the car for his presidency meeting. But he forgot about that and got a ride instead. And he was home for almost 10 minutes before he realized it. "Um, guess where the car is right now..."Long pause. Cue laughter."You're a moron."By the way, it takes about 40 minutes to walk from our apartment to the church at a moderate pace,

Read this book

2008-05-06T21:13:00.006-05:00

Some things are SO FUNNY that you absolutely must share them with people. And even though you have no idea what else is going on in Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse, you can appreciate the humor in this paragraph on page 57:'We come to the conclusion,' [said Ickenham], 'that the whole situation pivots on the pig. Eliminate the pig, and we see daylight. "What, no pig?" says the Duke,

The tri-wing screw

2008-04-27T15:24:00.005-05:00

So with a little help from Wikipedia I figured out the screw that was giving us trouble on the iron yesterday:"Tri-Wing, as the name suggests, is a screw with three "wings" and a small triangular hole in the center. A variation is a kind in which the three "wings" are joined in the center (with no triangular hole). A somewhat similar-looking design in which three short radial slots are not joined

A few firsts

2008-04-27T12:41:00.005-05:00

It's been an eventful past few days:Tuesday & Wednesday: First ever "business" trip. Xerox sent my supervisor and me to L.A., all expenses paid, to be wined and dined into either buying a large digital printer or partnering with them to help grow the business. It was awesome. Now, let's be clear: I did not deserve to be there, but I sure tried to pretend like I did.Tuesday: First ever trip to

2008-04-18T20:28:00.007-05:00

Today I bought 19 pretty much brand-new books and 4 used books--for a total of 25 books--for EIGHT (8) DOLLARS ($).The used books are:Twelfth NightAs You Like ItUncle Fred in the Springtimeand 25,000+ Baby Names. (Speculate all you like; this is no harbinger. I'm giving it away.)The practically new books (all Dover thrifts) are:The TempestKing LearHamletA Midsummer Night's DreamThe Merchant of

Quote of the month

2008-03-29T16:04:00.005-05:00

Mark: These magnifying mirrors make my head look huge!Me: Um, that's not a magnifying mirror.

Men Making the Most of 'Twilight'

2008-02-29T19:43:00.004-06:00

To all those who joined me in reading that shameless teenage romance, enjoy this for a belly laugh:http://mormonhusbands.blogspot.com/2008/02/twilight-series-for-dummies-and-totally.html(For the record: I am not and was not ever in love with Edward. In fact, the relationships in this book disturb me.)

A simile is like a metaphor

2008-02-24T08:10:00.004-06:00

Supposedly these rhetorical gems were gleaned from actual high school essays.1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he

Gluttony = nirvana

2008-02-03T18:55:00.000-06:00

Isn't ironic that you fast all day and then gorge yourself on dinner, after which you can barely move for at least an hour? (Maybe you don't do that. Maybe it's just me.)Anyway, I was feeling pretty ambitious this afternoon and I went all out for dinner. Pot roast (first ever), dinner rolls from scratch (first ever, and despite my fears, they turned out perfect--I even put them in one of those

The grind

2008-01-25T22:32:00.000-06:00

Observations from the last two months of work:Unfortunately, I'm learning that I'm not quite as organized as I thought I was. Being the middleman enforcer is rough. (And the mean-fun of it wears off quick.) I'd much rather be the one to exercise mercy than enforce justice. However, I recently discovered that it's much more tolerable to enforce justice if you can muster up some compassion. Except

yuck

2008-01-10T21:55:00.000-06:00

So it turns out that cherry flavored Kool-Aid tastes like watered down cough syrup. A piece of toast and 8 ounces of orange juice hasn't purged the aftertaste. Sick sick sick.

Deproductivity

2007-11-30T15:02:00.000-06:00

I would venture to guess that the average populace would say that the opposite of “productive” is “unproductive,” but I think that “unproductive” is just the absence of productivity—the complete opposite of “productive” should be negative productivity, or, shall we say, “deproductivity.”See, if you’d spent almost 13 hours working on a freelance job and then, after 2 additional hours, when you

2007-11-29T14:55:00.000-06:00

As seen in Working Mother magazine: Oros the Organic Baby Mountain Goat. ($27.00) I'm not kidding.

2007-11-20T18:45:00.000-06:00

Breaking and entering?

2007-11-14T21:07:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning the Relief Society president called to tell me that Parry, the deaf woman who I visit teach, was in the hospital. I agreed to go visit her later that afternoon on my way to the high school to tutor.Naturally, I whiled away at least an hour in frivolity, then left to visit Parry with just enough time for a ten to fifteen minute visit. After all, my communication abilities with

For future reference

2007-11-12T13:40:00.000-06:00

As I handed over my CURRENT, wrinkled, potato-peel-stained coupon, I learned that Bed Bath & Beyond accepts even their "expired" ones. How ironic.

Just in case

2007-11-10T18:04:00.000-06:00

I'm a pack rat because you just never know.Take today, for example: My mom wants me to send her some long-handled measuring spoons (apparently those are hard to come by in Italy, even though containers are tall). I told her I knew just the kind if she was willing to pay $10, and luckily for both of us, Bed Bath & Beyond was (sorta) on the way home. I found what I was looking for after scanning 10

Psychosomatic salivation!

2007-11-09T15:59:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder how just thinking about popping a sour treat can make those parotid glands cringe?

A tale as old as...me

2007-11-06T22:24:00.000-06:00

So I'm tutoring twice a week at a high school here in town. (Side note: This high school is huge. The first time I saw it, I thought, "What large governing body convenes here?") It's a city-wide program sponsored by the local university, and it's pretty small at my particular school. Thus there is very poor communication, and sometimes there is confusion about the room where we're supposed to

Impetus

2007-11-04T18:34:00.000-06:00

It's when you frequently find yourself mentally writing posts before you even have a blog that you know the blogosphere is calling to you. The problem with starting a blog so late is that all the clever domains are taken. I guess I should have expected that all the words that mean "long-winded," "rambling," "verbose," and---unfortunately---"many-syllabic" naturally lend themselves to to a blog

2007-11-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

Dear Void,I have succumbed.